1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to office and entertainment equipment and furniture, and particularly relates to a revolutionary electronic office multimedia workstation combining capability for convenient and comfortable access to communication, entertainment, record keeping, computation and desktop activity such as writing.
2. Description of Related Art
Multimedia processing is the ability to manipulate and to merge audio, video, graphics and text. The microelectronics revolution is making universal such table-top appliances as copiers, personal computers, printers and facsimile, in addition to the more traditional desk-top writing space, writing equipment and telephone. The ease of use and the durability of these appliances, as well as the current relatively low cost, makes it possible for a great variety of users to operate these appliances personally. For the office worker, and for the secretary perhaps, heavy-duty appliances standing alone, or individual appliances arrayed on a table-top and individually connected for power and communication, might be accepatable. But for the user whose office decor must be top quality, and for all users for whom space is at a premium, and whose time and comfort are important, there is a need for an effective compact multi-appliance workstation. This workstation not only must include a great variety of functional capability, but also must be both comfortable and impressive as an item of furniture. Furthermore, it may be advantageous for the workstation to be located out into the room, away from any wall. Connecting cables and power cables for individual appliances thus would create visual clutter and even a possible hazard. The cost of a full set of individual appliances, each with power converter and full covers, plus the cost of tables to support the set of appliances, is considerable. It is a very difficult decorating problem to integrate a number of appliances, each with its own size, shape and color scheme and requisite cables, with walls, desk, chair and artistic items.
The prior art includes also a computer workstation built into an antique-style rolltop desk, with viewscreen and printer mounted permanently in operational position, accessible for use when the roller top is opened, and with keyboard in a position for use, but under a movable worktop.
The prior art thus has provided the user with a set of office appliances partially or not at all integrated into the workstation, and has partially or not at all solved the problems of such integration. Full advantage of the available economies has not been taken.
The prior art has produced a variety of video cabinets and computer workstations. Typically, however, these cabinets and workstations have featured a single appliance to be carried atop a shelf or built in. Furniture makers have made furniture with worktops or shelves to hold appliances. Appliance makers have made complete appliances, each with a full complement of covers, power supplies, cables and other essentials.
A different approach was originally taken by stereo component makers, who sold subunits which the user would mount on shelves and integrate electronically, most commonly in a stack of shelves.
The office environment generally involves:
1. office workers, such as secretaries, managers, etc., who may collectively be referred to as "users" of office appliances and furniture. PA0 2. office furniture. PA0 3. office appliances, such as typewriters, communication equipment such as telephone, facsimile, dictating machines, information storage devices ranging from address card devices and file cabinets to large computer systems. The large crew-served central computer system with its own assigned space still exists, but the personal computer has found its place in the office and in the home, either as a "smart terminal" supplement to the large computer system or as a complete system in itself, with its own keyboard, disk drives, computation unit and printer. PA0 4. office design, including arrangement of office furniture and office appliances, placement of office workers, and decor.
Office capability has experienced revolutionary transformation as office workers became the users of computers and other sophisticated small office appliances. Users in the small office, even in the home, gained productivity previously limited to the large corporation with its costly mainframe computers and banks of peripheral units such as storage devices and printers. This productivity gain has been referred to as the "desktop revolution." The desktop revolution has not, however, been without its drawbacks. One such drawback is the hitherto unchecked proliferation of desktop and tabletop devices. This proliferation is the source of a new problem, which may be referred to as "office environment pollution."
Office environment pollution creates a set of problems which affect office workers, office furniture, office appliances, and office design. Office environment pollution may affect the health and morale of the office worker and thus diminish productivity. Office environment pollution may create clutter and require additional desks and auxiliary tables, demanding additional office furniture just for the proliferating office appliances, including additional power cables, communication cables, over-voltage protectors, which might be thought of as appliances demanding additional appliances. Cable clutter is very significant; the ordinary office cannot take the solution found in most large computer installations-the raised floor with cables underneath. Office environment pollution has a terrible effect on office design.
Computer stands have been designed and marketed. These tend to be multiple-level tables, having fixed locations for the various appliances which make up a personal computer system. Some computer stands permit installation of the display screen at an angle to the horizontal and vertical. Various secretarial workstations have been provided, ranging from the simple typewriter table to the disappearing typewriter desk, in which a desktop conceals the mechanism to raise a typewriter to operating position or to lower it to concealment below the desktop.
The need exists for an ergonomically and aesthetically appealing multimedia workstation which is economically competitive to the array of individual appliances and their supporting equipment and furniture. User health is an important consideration; eyestrain and backstrain are to be avoided. The workstation must minimize harmful radiation from the appliances, and must provide a comfortable worktop, a comfortable keyboard, and comfortable viewing of any viewscreen, plus reachable storage and appliance access.
The office appliance industry has been fragmented. It has grown separately for each appliance. While not a universal situation, it is common for copier manufacturers to make copiers, facsimile manufacturers to make facsimile, and so on with manufacturers of telephone answering machines, telephone instruments, dictating machines, computers, etc. The office furniture industry has also grown separately. Desk manufacturers have made provision for the typewriter, in secretary desk units, and at least one manufacturer offers a computer in a rolltop desk, but other appliances have generally been table-top appliances. A noable exception is the single-purpose workstation such as the reservation terminal. It is very unusual to have such an appliance placed on the desk of a generalist; it is very very unusual to have such an appliance built into the general-purpose desk.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,669,789, Pemberton, COMPUTER USER'S DESK, June 2, 1987, shows a desk with a liftable worktop which carries a viewscreen mounted underneath. The entire computer, including keyboard, is covered by the worktop in desk mode. In computer mode, the worktop is raised to raise and unmask the viewscreen; the keyboard support slides out into operational position.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,766,422, Wolters et al, COMPUTER INTEGRATED DESK, Aug. 23, 1988, shows a desk which in desk mode appears to be a standard executive kneehole desk, with sides having either tambour door or hinged door to unmask computer components built into the desk. The viewscreen is of the flat screen variety and slides vertically upward from a rest position at the rear of the desk out of sight. The keyboard is raised from a retracted position below the worktop blotter pad when in computer mode.
In short, those skilled in the office furniture art have avoided the office appliance arts; those skilled in a selected office appliance art have not been skilled in the art of office furniture, or even the art of other office appliances. There has been little effort and small success in supplying to a generalist user an integrated general purpose workstation with a meaningful set of the currently available major office appliances. It is unheard of to supply an integrated workstation with provision for easy acceptance of a future designed appliance as an integral built-in part of the system, on a basis other than provision of table-top or equivalent space. The need is for a REVolutionary Electronic Office, which may be termed a "reveo."